


Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Hurt Oliver Queen, I Blame Tumblr, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Lance knows it, Light Angst, Light Hurt/Comfort, Olicity is endgame y'all, Phone Calls, Post-Episode: s04e17 Beacon of Hope, Why Did I Write This?, fluff?, light emotional hurt/comfort, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 09:05:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6417430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set just post-4x17 Beacon of Hope. In the aftermath of Brie Larvan's attack and Oliver's near death experience, he receives a surprising phone call at 1am.</p><p>
  <i>“Speedy?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“... yeah, I, um, hi, Oliver… you’ve - I’m not Thea.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Immediately, he sat up straighter, twisting around and ignoring the painful twinge in his torso to lean against the couch, questioning slightly disbelievingly, “Felicity?”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why I wrote this. I watched 4x17 with my family and then boom. This happened. In like an hour.

* * *

“Oliver. Hey, Oliver. Kid. Wake up. Hey, kid, wake up. Oliver!”

His shoulder was poked firmly and instinctively the archer’s hand darted upwards to grab hold of the wrist tightly. When the rest of his body responded and Oliver’s eyes opened groggily a few seconds later, he huffed tiredly at Lance, who was crouching over him where he was sleeping on the floor in the captain’s living room, one eyebrow raised.

He released the captain’s wrist with a gruff, “Sorry.”

“We’ll talk about you sleeping on the floor when I offered you a perfectly good couch with a blanket and pillow later,” Lance replied. “Right now -” He forced Oliver’s cell phone into his hand before standing. “That’s been ringing for five minutes.”

Oliver tipped his head back, exhaling. His chest was still feeling painful, sharp stabs of agony being sent through his torso every time he turned too quickly, bent over or breathed in too deeply. He was exhausted. “What time is it?” He muttered, rubbing his eyes.

“One am.” Lance vanished from his vision, grumbling, “Answer the damn phone.”

Pulling himself into a sitting position with a grimace and glaring as the bedroom door was slammed loudly, he turned his phone on and checked the screen. He had seven missed calls from Thea. Sighing, he called the number back, waiting for it to connect, closing his eyes. John and Laurel had probably told his sister about him nearly dying from having his internal organs being stung and ripped apart by a robot bee and its microscopic larvae.

The call connected. “Hey, Thea,” he said hoarsely, his voice still rough from sleep and his achy chest. “I’m fine, okay, you don’t need to worry. I’m sure Dig and Laurel were exaggerating when they told you… whatever they told you. But it’s one am and I haven’t been sleeping well recently… I’m okay, I promise.”

There was a beat of silence. He waited for Thea to respond. When she didn’t, he quickly checked he hadn’t accidentally hung up on her, before returning the phone to his ear.

“Speedy?”

“... yeah, I, um, hi, Oliver… you’ve - I’m not Thea.”

Immediately, he sat up straighter, twisting around and ignoring the painful twinge in his torso to lean against the couch, questioning slightly disbelievingly, “Felicity?”

“Hi,” came the hesitant reply. “If it wasn’t obvious, I, uh… I stole Thea’s phone. She’s staying with me. One of the paramedics said that she shouldn’t be alone for the next twenty four hours because she hit her head when Brie threw her and - she’s staying with me. At my apartment. Because where else would we be staying.” She laughed nervously. Oliver couldn’t help but crack a smile. “I just wanted to call and check if - what I mean to say is that Laurel came over to visit and told us both what happened with the bee and you being hurt and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“It’s fine, Felicity,” he responded, clearing his throat and running a hand through his hair. “I’m fine.”

“It’s one am. It’s not fine.” Her tone had dropped. His stomach dropped alongside it. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. That was her sad, ‘I feel guilty’ voice. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called.”

He could tell she was about to hang up. He had to stop her. He needed to hear her voice, just hear her breathe. “I lied,” he whispered.

There was a pause, in which only Felicity’s breathing could he heard. Eventually, her quiet reply of, “What?” arrived. It was extremely hard to gauge her reaction or her emotions from her voice since it was so hushed.

“I lied,” he said quietly. “I know I said I would never lie to you again but I didn’t want you to worry.” He heaved out a sigh, squeezing his eyes shut at the pain it caused. “I’m not fine. The bee that was inside of me - and the larvae it produced - it damaged my lung tissue. I’m having trouble breathing at the moment.”

“Where are you?” He could hear the lilt of fear and concern in her voice.

“I’m at Captain Lance’s apartment,” he answered, glancing around at his surroundings and the dark living room. The antibiotics and pain meds that John had forced on him were sitting on the coffee table top, mocking him. “John wasn’t comfortable letting me stay by myself, but Lyla’s parents are staying at his place so he didn’t have room. Lance offered me his couch for the night.”

“You’re not sleeping on the couch, are you?” She whispered, as if it was a secret.

He chuckled, despite the pain. “No, I’m not,” he admitted.

There was silence again, in which they just listened to each other’s breathing. It was so soothing that Oliver thought he would be able to fall back to asleep to it. “Oliver? Are you still awake?”

“Yeah,” he yawned.

“I can’t sleep.”

He nodded. He understood that. The only reason he was sleeping was because he was taking sedatives. “Do you want to stay up and talk?”

She sounded unsure as she muttered, “Oliver… I don’t…”

“It doesn’t matter that we’re not together,” he said quickly. “We phoned each other to talk when we couldn’t sleep before we were girlfriend and boyfriend. We did it before the Undertaking. It’s just talking.” When there was no response, yet no protest, he continued, questioning, “Do you want to tell me about your day?”

“Oliver…”

“Talk to me, Felicity. How was your day?”

Felicity snorted. “It was awful.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, mine too,” he confessed.

“I was really scared, Oliver,” she sobered. “There must have been millions of those bees around the building and Brie was threatening the entire board of directors… I thought she was going to kill us all. She almost killed Thea.” Another pause, then a whispered, “She almost killed you.”

“I’m alive, Felicity.”

“Laurel told me it was close.” He closed his eyes. “You could have died. And I wasn’t even there. The last time I would have seen you would have been when I told you that we could never be together.” Before he could even think to respond to that, Felicity went on, “I know I said thank you earlier for, you know, saving me but - I meant it. Thank you. You saved me. Again.”

He smiled, glancing down at the floor. “And when I said you never, ever have to thank me, I meant that too.” The silence was heavy for a moment before he broke it with a quiet, “I love you, Felicity. You’re my always. You never have to thank me for protecting you.” Realising that wasn’t exactly fair to press onto her, he changed the subject by teasing, “Besides, you saved me too. Curtis sent me a video clip of you electrocuting the Bee Man with that lamp. With a load of explosions and captions edited onto it, but you were pretty badass.”

She laughed. “Really?”

“I’ll send it to you. Lance saw it, he says we should post it on YouTube.”

“How was Curtis by the way?” She asked suddenly. Then, in a dark voice, “He didn’t hurt my babies, did he?”

“Well, I did tell him that next time he visits, he should try to keep the property damage to a minimum.”

“Oh my god. That bad?”

“To be fair, a robotic bee was trying to kill him and Lance. And Laurel destroyed all the glass when she saved my life with her Canary Cry. Curtis was good. He may have freaked out and fan boy-ed a bit… but he kept a level head. You were right when you said he’d be a good addition to the team.” He shook his head, saying in a mocking, condescending voice, “His bee puns though…”

“He was making bee puns?” Felicity sounded excited. He thought he heard her say, under her breath, “The student becomes the master.” Then, in a confused voice, “And what’s this about Harry Potter? Thea was telling me.”

“Oh.” He grinned. “When we were… you know, away… I read all the Harry Potter books. I was trying to get caught up on pop culture.”

“Yes, I remember, we watched Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Elementary and Agents of Shield together.”

“I, um, kind of didn’t know there were Harry Potter movies.”

She fake-gasped in horror. “You have to fix that. You need to watch them Oliver, if not for Daniel Radcliffe’s ever-changing haircut, the amazing CGI or so you can yell at the producers for messing up Ron and Ginny’s characters, you have to because Emma Watson is a babe. Feminism for the win.”

“Who’s Emma Watson?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask that.”

He laughed softly, letting the quiet fall again between them, listening to her beautiful laugh on the other end of the line. “I was scared today too,” he finally said.

“... why?”

“I saw the news report and the only thing I could think of was that you and Thea were both trapped in there. And then Lance told me that Donna and the board members got out and that you two were both inside…” His breath caught in his throat. “Just… the thought… of you in danger like that… and I wasn’t able to protect you. I thought I was going to go crazy. Knowing there was a possibility that you could get hurt and that we’d never be able to -” He couldn’t finish. He felt sick just thinking about it.

“...”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. That wasn’t fair -”

“No, you were telling the truth,” Felicity replied. “And you promised to tell me the truth.” There was faint clattering in the background. “That’s Thea. I have to go.”

“Right.” He swallowed wetly. “Goodnight, Felicity.”

“Bye, Oliver.”

“Wait, Felicity.” When the line remained open, he tried to keep his voice steady as he told her firmly, “You can always talk to me. Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I’ll always be here to listen to whatever you have to say.”

“... Thanks, Oliver. Goodnight.”

He hung up and chucked the phone at the wall frustratedly. Goddammit. He just missed her so goddamn much. He thought that hearing her voice would make him feel better, but now he just felt like there was a bottomless pit in his stomach as his heart was being torn to shreds. It was worse than any sort of torture he had ever experienced. Why did love hurt so much?

Oliver wasn’t even aware that Lance had re-entered the room until the captain gently pressed a glass of water and his pain pills into his hands, tapping his knee carefully. For once, the archer swallowed them without complaint. He just wanted the pain to go away. And he knew that the pills would only work for his physical pains, not his mental and emotional ones, but he wasn’t exactly thinking straight.

“It’s a start, kid.” He glanced up to see Lance smiling at him softly. “She’s calling you in the middle of the night to talk to you about her day? You’re having emotional conversations like that? It’s a start.”

“She won’t let it go any further,” he mumbled. Closing his eyes, he muttered, “No, that was mean. It’s not Felicity’s fault we’re not together, it’s mine, and I know that.”

Lance patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll get there. You two - you’re the type of couple that people believe in. The couple that always finds its way back to each other. You’re gonna end up together whatever happens. Sure, you had a fight. About a pretty big thing, I mean, you didn’t tell her you had a nine year old kid, Oliver, that’s a big mistake. But it’s a mistake. You’ll make a lot of them down the line. It was just a fight. Trust me, when you’re married with kids, you’ll have them on a daily basis.” The captain chuckled. He stood and brushed his hand over Oliver’s shoulder again in quite a fatherly motion, which shocked the archer slightly. “Just you wait and see, kid.”

“Thanks,” he replied in a daze.

“Try and get some sleep,” the captain ordered. “Well, I say that, but those pain meds are probably gonna knock you straight out in a few minutes anyway. ‘Night, Oliver.” He disappeared into his bedroom, leaving Oliver frowning at the doorway.

The archer glanced down at his hands. He truly wanted to believe what Lance had said, about he and Felicity finding their way back to each other, whatever happened, but it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. He had lied to her - technically, not told her - about something completely massive in his life that he should have shared with her, he had broken her trust, and he didn’t deserve to have it back. He knew he was going to try anyway, despite that, but what Lance was saying sounded like he was saying they were straight out of a fairy tale.

He knew the meds were taking effect, finally, because the ache in his chest was lessening and his eyelids were drooping. Sighing, Oliver dragged the blanket on top of the couch over him and laid down flat on his back on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

He was asleep again within minutes, with thoughts of he and Felicity, in a black tux and a white dress, with a blue eyes, blonde haired baby in their arms, dancing on his mind.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave kudos and comment :)
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


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